Stillwind

What do they actually do

Stillwind is building Stillwind Search, a natural‑language search engine that turns plain‑English requirements into precise electronic‑part specifications and matches them against a proprietary database they say contains “millions of parts.” The product is pre‑launch, available via waitlist, and is described as “currently in development” on their site and YC profile stillwind.ai Y Combinator.

Their near‑term focus is finishing the data/search layer that combines semantic matching with exact constraint filtering for reliable part discovery. The public roadmap then adds verification tools (real‑time digital simulation, analog models, firmware‑in‑the‑loop) and, longer‑term, spatial intelligence for placement/routing—steps toward a system that can autonomously design and validate hardware stillwind.ai.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Embedded/hardware design engineers selecting components and building boards: They must translate vague requirements into precise specs, but current catalog searches are noisy or miss constraints, making part selection slow and error‑prone. Stillwind aims to convert natural language into exact specs and return tight matches from its parts database stillwind.ai.
• Firmware developers working close to hardware: They often can’t fully test code until hardware prototypes exist, so integration bugs surface late. Stillwind plans firmware‑in‑the‑loop and virtual verification to enable earlier testing cycles stillwind.ai.
• Procurement/BOM engineers: They manually cross‑check distributors, alternatives, and constraints (voltage, package, lifecycle, lead time), which is time‑consuming and easy to miss. Stillwind claims a proprietary parts database and precise matching/filters to reduce manual checks stillwind.ai.
• Small hardware teams and solo founders building prototypes: Limited time and budget mean wrong part choices or slow iterations quickly derail schedules. Faster part discovery and early virtual validation are intended to shorten costly loops stillwind.ai.
• PCB/layout engineers and EDA teams: Placement/routing and spatial constraints require many manual tweaks and slow finalization. Stillwind’s roadmap targets spatial intelligence and automated placement/routing to reduce this burden stillwind.ai.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Recruit from the waitlist, YC/ETH networks, and direct outreach to embedded teams; run free, hands‑on 4–8 week pilots with custom data ingestion and clear success metrics in exchange for detailed feedback and a short case study.
• First 50: Convert successful pilots; use referrals and targeted outreach to contract manufacturers, small hardware startups, university labs, and firmware teams; host workshops and short discounted paid pilots using a lightweight ECAD plugin demo and simple ROI one‑pagers.
• First 100: Open a self‑serve beta with tiered pricing, API access, and ECAD/distributor connectors so teams can trial independently; scale with targeted LinkedIn ads to procurement/BOM roles, community posts/tutorials (Hackaday/EE forums/Reddit), and a referral/credit program.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Adjacent software markets suggest meaningful headroom: EDA software was about $11.1B in 2022 with projections to ~$22.2B by 2030, while ECAD (electrical CAD, including PCB tools) was ~$2.8B in 2023 with steady growth Grand View Research Credence Research. Stillwind targets the component search, verification, and (later) layout slices adjacent to these categories.

Bottom-up calculation:

If 300k–600k professionals adopt a parts search/verification tool at $600–$1,800 per seat per year, TAM is roughly $180M–$1.08B annually. This seat count reflects a subset of embedded firmware developers plus a comparable number of hardware/PCB/procurement users derived from global developer counts JetBrains.

Assumptions:

• Around 20.8M professional developers globally in 2025; assume ~5% are embedded/firmware‑focused to estimate the firmware user pool JetBrains.
• 15–30% of embedded/firmware engineers are near‑term buyers for parts search/verification, and there is rough parity in potential seats from hardware/PCB/procurement roles (uncited market structure assumption).
• Per‑seat pricing assumed at $50–$150/month for technical SaaS with data/verification features (benchmarking against typical developer tool pricing; exact pricing TBD).

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Octopart: Electronic‑parts search engine aggregating distributor/manufacturer listings with parametric search and BOM tools; overlaps directly on component discovery and matching from large databases.
• Digi‑Key: Global distributor with detailed parametric search, live inventory/pricing, and part list tools; many engineers start sourcing here, competing on search and sourcing workflow guide.
• SnapEDA: Library of symbols, footprints, and 3D models with a searchable parts/CAD database and ECAD integrations; relevant where part selection requires footprint/model verification before layout.
• SiliconExpert: Enterprise “component intelligence” platform focused on BOM management, lifecycle/obsolescence, and cross‑references; overlaps for procurement/BOM teams evaluating supplier and replacement options.
• Altium: EDA vendor with Altium 365: component search, supplier links, managed libraries, and full PCB placement/routing; competes via tight integration of part data and layout workflows Altium library management.